Coopers Kits

[kymg]

Hi All,

This is my first post and although I have searched cannot find the answer to my question.

Coopers make a kit (the original) that is sold in supermarkets and another sold in HBS (Thomas Cooper).

Are they the same quality? It has been suggested to me that the former is inferior to the latter

Look forward to some tasty brews either way

Kym

[Kevnlis]

The Thomas Coopers kits are just the premium range of Coopers kits. I would say they are superior to the Coopers Original kits.

[kymg]

Yeah thats the impression I was given. I shall cook up a Big Dub version then I might give the premium range a try. I am pretty keen on the pale ale (in fact anything Coopers being an ex South Aussie) I don't think that there is a pale ale in their premium range. Do you know what might be close??

I shall add a BE#2 as per instructions. I made one of these a fair while ago and used ordinary sugar. It was an absolute cracker. I am not sure that I could repeat it though so I had better folow the intructions from Dr Tim at Coopers

Thanks for the help

[Kevnlis]

I like the Sparkling ale with a 1.5 kilo tin of Amber malt and 500g of LDME. Throw in 15-20g of your favorite hop for a 20 min boil with the 500g LDME in 5L of water and you have a great drop!

There are heaps of CPA recipes on this forum if you do a search.

[racer]

Is it posible that the yeast is the only difference between the two kits? and maybe the extract is all the same per type of brew.
How would they pick the better of the two extracts?

[rwh]

Yeah thats the impression I was given. I shall cook up a Big Dub version then I might give the premium range a try. I am pretty keen on the pale ale (in fact anything Coopers being an ex South Aussie) I don't think that there is a pale ale in their premium range. Do you know what might be close??

http://www.coopers.com.au/store/viewPro ... ductID=129

I shall add a BE#2 as per instructions. I made one of these a fair while ago and used ordinary sugar. It was an absolute cracker. I am not sure that I could repeat it though so I had better folow the intructions from Dr Tim at Coopers

The BE2 is much better than plain sugar. Even better than that is 1kg of Light Dry Malt Extract (LDME) with some flavouring hops to balance the malt sweetness. I have a recipe I liked:

Coopers Pale Ale kit
1kg LDME
150g Crystal grain, cracked and steepd
100g Carapils grain, cracked and steeped
12g Goldings @15 minutes
kit yeast
brewed at 18°C-20°C

I like the Sparkling ale with a 1.5 kilo tin of Amber malt and 500g of LDME. Throw in 15-20g of your favorite hop for a 20 min boil with the 500g LDME in 5L of water and you have a great drop!

I did this recipe with a sligtly modified version of the instructions from the can and it was fantastic. The recipe:

1 can coopers sparkling
1.2kg LDME
300g DDME
300g Dextrose
7g Goldings @ 20 mins
Kit yeast
Topped to 23L

Is it posible that the yeast is the only difference between the two kits? and maybe the extract is all the same per type of brew.
How would they pick the better of the two extracts?

The yeast is the same between the kits. The higher quality kits probably contain a larger proportion or higher quality combination of specialty grains and other adjuncts, as well as real hop additions as opposed to adding isohop extract. But I'm only guessing. Oh, and they have prettier labels.

[drsmurto]

I'm beginning to think rwh's goldings addiction is more than a match for my amarillo addiction.........

Is there anything you dont use it for?

[rwh]

Heh heh. Guilty as charged! I use it for most of my Ales which just happen to be what I most frequently brew. As a counterexample, my last brew was this:

67. Sierra Nevada PA, Kit version
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008

1 Can Coopers Draught
1.5kg LDME
225g JW med. crystal
115g carapils
14g perle @ 15
28g cascade @ 5
28g cascade @ 0
kit yeast

[Paleman]

In my opinion, Coopers Original V Coopers Premium............matters not.

The best beer to come from Coopers HomeBrew concentrates is a.......

Coopers Original Bitter Concentrate.
Plus half a kilo of light malt.
Plus half a kilo of Dextrose.
Plus some noble finishing hops.
Safale yeast.

Makes for a beautiful winter ale, and also doubles as a tasty summer quencher. Strange but true

One of the best brews ive dabbled in, and i do partials quite often.

[rwh]

Agreed Paleman, the Bitter is a cracker. My recipe is all malt with Cascade finishing hops.

[Trizza]

I've done every coopers kit except for the Irish draught and the new European Lager.

All have been good, standout performers in my opinion are:
Lager
Bitter
Dark Ale
Heritage Lager (Premium)
IPA (Premium)

My favourite kit brew is the Bitter with 1.5 ALME, Goldings (Flavour and aroma, 20/20)and Safale.

Despite these favourites, any coopers kit can be made into an excellent beer by doing most or all of the following:
1) Using all malt, when either mixing the hopped concentrate (Kit) with some plain light liquid malt extract, some darker malt extract or some dried malt extract.
2) Adding additional hops to the brew. These can be boiled for 60 minutes for extra bitterness, 20-30 minutes for extra flavour or less than 5 minutes for extra aroma.
3) Buying better yeast. Using dried yeast like Safale 04 or Saflager S-23 make a world of difference. Liquid yeasts apparently are even better.
4) Steeping some grains. Grains such as Carapils, Crystal, Chocolate and Black patent add allot. These need to be crushed, and then steeped in 66-68 degrees water for 30 minutes. After this just strain into the fermenter.

18 months ago I started using coopers kits, with my first homebrew, now I’m doing all-extract brews, and they are incredibly good. Best thing you can do with your homebrewing is to never stop challenging yourself, and always be willing to try new things in your brews.

Trizza.

[drsmurto]

Towards the end of my kit brewing days i started using mainly the coopers lager tin. I made everything from that, from lagers to stouts. I used spec grains for colouring and additional flavours (where appropriate) and hopped it up accordingly. Its a very versatile kit and the cheapest of them.

[Old Gil]

whoa, back up there, did he say ordinary sugar? and it turned out great? this must be a genius in the making. I've never heard of anyone using normal sugar and liking it. It's usually what turns people off HB isn't it

[Kevnlis]

Actually I use white table sugar (mostly to prime bottles) quite often in brews and I reckon anything under 500g is undetectable. It doesn't do much for the head, but I do not notice any off flavours from it.

[Old Gil]

I was under the impression that he used all white sugar, You can't tell me that would be an absolute cracker as he describes. Then again everyone has their own taste preferances, but 1kg of sugar is certainly not mine

[rwh]

Coopers use the equivalent of 500g sucrose in their Pale Ale...

[kymg]

I will be the first to admit that I am a real novice when it comes to beer making - drinking it is a different story of course. But I made a CPA with sugar and I thought it tasted not dissimilar to the stuff that Cooper make. Should that be expected???? And from memory I drank it all.

Having said that I have just put a CPA down with BE2 and will be interested to see how it turns out.

Thanks for the comments - I look forward to more.

[Longwood-65]

Having said that I have just put a CPA down with BE2 and will be interested to see how it turns out.

Thanks for the comments - I look forward to more.

Next time and if your near a HBS and only for a couple of dollars more than the BE2, get 1kg malt and 500g's dex.
i think BE2 has more dex than Malt
I think BE1 has even less Malt and added Corn Syrup

I reserve the right to be completely wrong.
Cheers
Ron

[kymg]

Put down the CPA on Thursday. It was a bit warm to start with and was bubbling away six hours later. The bubbling stopped when I added a little more water to the airlock. The family reckon the bubbling was annoying them - sheesh. It has stopped bubbling now and is sitting at 24C. It was in the late 20s to start with. I am guessing that the higher temps got the yeast going quickly.

I have a couple of questions - can the quick start cause grief

and

how long should I let it brew for given that there is no bubbling at all now

[racer]

I have noticed that since going to controlled temp that my beer has lost alot of fruity taste that you will get from high temps. So now I find I have to add hops to give back some fruitiness. I wouldnt worry to much it will still be drinkable, but you will notice its definetly home brew.